Why is that? Simply because it’s near, for financial reasons or because there is something amazing there,or something that you haven’t got in your home country?

What was the first foreign country that you visited?

34 comments

  1. For vacation people mostly go to Greece, Turkey or some Bulgarians visit Romania. Besides, I know a lot of people who prefer visiting Macedonia for sightseeing or just good time in Skopje or near the lake Ohrid.

  2. The most popular foreign countries for tourists from Sicily are France (especially Paris) and Spain (especially Barcelona). London is also a very popular destination.

    People here don’t tend to travel much for beaches,as we have plenty… the most popular trips abroad are city breaks.

  3. Slovakia maybe? Generally considered the most similar foreign country to Hungary, and people usually go there to take advantage of its more Libertarian laws: Energy drinks contain taurine, cigarettes with menthol are legal, fireworks are legal all year around, casinos everywhere, car taxes are cheaper etc. I suppose it is kinda like how Swedes visit Denmark or how Iranians visit Turkey for the same reason, a neighboring country with a more laissez-faire approach to life.

    Slovakia was the first country I visited with my family back in the 90s when I was around 6 years old, to buy a camping stove more cheaply than in Hungary.

    ​

    I was just in Slovakia about a month ago for cheap autogas, as I was in the Hungarian border town of Esztergom, so I hopped over to Štúrovo to fill up my car. I called an assistant out to help with tanking the propane into the car, since in Hungary it is illegal to fill autogas into your car yourself, and I didn’t know the Slovak laws for it. The guy came out and started filling up my car, and I told him that I don’t know what the laws for self-service are in Slovakia. He answered: “Well technically, self-servicing autogas is illegal here as well, but we shit on laws!” LOL

  4. Hands down Croatia. It’s the closest seaside and it is cheaper than lake Balaton.

    The first foreign country I visited was technically Austria but the first foreign country where I went on vacaion was Croatia.

  5. For tourism, it’s Spain. Mallorca is considered to be the 17th German state.

    But people living close to the borders also often visit the neighbouring countries for various reasons.

  6. Turkey and Egypt are the most popular since they are cheap and offer package trips for people that aren’t experienced travelers.

    Then you have western Europe which make good city-breaks and there used to be very cheap flights so it was super convenient.

    For the traveler experienced crowd a lot of people head to more tropical locations like Caribbean/SEA (more package trips) or South America since it’s on the same time zone as USA and people who work in IT can visit there and work on the same time zone as America so it’s a convenient work/vacation trip.

  7. Used to be Turkey, Egypt and maybe Thailand, mostly for holidays.

    Now? Probably Georgia, Armenia or Serbia lol.

  8. Croatia, they have sea, similar language, similar prices, not that far away,… Croatia for the win 🇨🇿🤝🇭🇷

  9. For Switzerland I guess Italy. Great cuisine, historically interesting & beautiful cities, great landscapes, and what most people would consider better weather. Also it’s pretty close, doable by car or train, and relatively cheap. Not to forget that a lot of Swiss people have relatives in Italy.

  10. According to a stat I found the most common destinations for Finns are Estonia, Sweden and Spain.

    The first foreign country I visited was Sweden but it was the 80s and it was more difficult to go to Estonia. Estonia is the country I’ve visited the most, it’s so easy to take a day trip to Tallinn from Helsinki. I like it because it’s easy to get to but still somewhat different.

  11. Spain has been the #1 destination for Danes 21 years in a row. In 2022, Spain was the destination of 19% of all holidays with 4 nights or more.

    Costa del Sol, the Canaries and Mallorca have been major travel destinations for Danes ever since package-holidays started being a thing.

    My first trip abroad was at 3 months when my parents brought me on a skiing holiday to Norway 🙂

  12. Summer vacation: Croatia (Shared history and no boarders in Yugoslavia. We consider it “our” home seaside)

    Day trips and travel: Italy (No explanation needed, most beautiful, historic and diverse Country right next to ours. Sadly the best parts of Italy are not the ones close to us. Except Dolomiti and Venice.

  13. For more than 20 years, Croatia has been the most popular destination for Czechs.

    More than 700,000 Czechs visit Croatia every year by car, bus, plane or train.
    The main reason is the beaches and the sea and the friendly attitude of the services there. In some places it is possible to communicate even in Czech.

    The first foreign country I visited was the German Democratic Republic, as a child, with my parents.

  14. I’m not French but I live in Paris and French seem to like visiting France lol… and Portugal.

  15. I feel like it’s gotta be Spain, though I’m not sure if they really want many brits to come lol. Most people tend to go for the beaches/ sunny weather or the nightlife. France is also popular i think, having the Eurostar from London.

  17. It depends on the purpose of the visit.

    I live near the bother with Bosnia and many people here often go there for cheaper shopping. I’m pretty sure people living near Slovenia go shopping there.

    Most of us spend our summer vacations on our coast (well, those who can afford it, sadly, too many people can’t) so we don’t visit Italy, Greece or Spain in such large numbers as other Europeans (except for high school graduation trips). However, plenty of people go to Austria or Italy in winter.

  19. For holidays it would probably be France but Belgium and Germany are popular for day trips or weekends due to the proximity of many Belgian and German cities to the Dutch border. Camping (on a campsite/camping pitch) in France is quite popular for it being an economic and often family friendly option for a holiday, it’s also not too far away by car. Spain is very popular as well because people like the culture and want to get away from our grey weather.

    Many people who live near the border do groceries or fill up their car in Belgium or Germany because it’s often cheaper to do so there so technically they would be the most visited. If you’re at a petrol garage in Belgium near the Dutch border 90% of the cars you’ll see there have Dutch plates.

  20. Croatia #1, easily. It is near, and they have an abundance of beautiful beaches. Our coastline is almost non-existant. I don’t know a person who hasn’t been to Croatia, and many people go there every year in the summer. Italy is close too, but the beaches near our borders can’t compare with what Croatia has to offer. Also, it is much easier to communicate with Croats, without actually knowing their language, than it is with Italians.

    Austria used to be like Croatia, but for winter times. They have amazing ski places in Carinthia, Tyrol, etc. Especially in the early 2000’s, it used to be popular to go skiing in Austria, because it was less crowded than in Slovenia and they had more natural snow, usually. Also, they are as close as Croatia. It got very expensive tho, to ski in general. So perhaps it is time to go exploring their mountains in the summer. Still have some peaks to check at home, but I miss the Germknödel with vanilla sauce and poppyseed sugardust sprinkled on top. But the Italian mountains, especially in Trentino are spectacular. It’s actually pretty cool, living in Slovenia and having Austria, Croatia and Italy as neighbours. Hungary on the other hand, feels very far away.

    First foreign country I visited was Austria.

  22. I don’t know that it’s actually the most popular, but France is the most stereotypical holiday destination.

    Edit: I see a lot of other people are saying Spain. I admittedly haven’t taken much interest in foreign holidays for a fair few years now, so my information might be a bit out of date.

  23. Propably Greece. And I’ve never been there even though I’ve visited circa 30 countries lol

  25. Personally, I grew up in the centre of Germany so all borders were kind of “far” away.

    The first time abroad for me was a day trip to Strasbourg when we were on holidays in the black forstes. The second time was a day trip to Salzburg when we were on holidays in the German alps.

    The first time for a full week abroad was in one of these infamous all inclusive hotels in türkiye. As a kid I loved it but looking back now, it’s really a shame that I didn’t experience any Turkish culture there.

  26. For Poland, I’d say Germany and Italy. I’m not sure how accurate that it is and whether this applies to most of the country or just my region, but most people I meet either have been or are planning to go to either of those countries. Especially Italy for skiing.

  27. Croatia. Czechs even complain that they are too many Czechs in Croatia in summer and they are ruining the place. Also many Croats understand Czech.

  30. for finnish people it’s sweden, closely followed by estonia, for the simple reason that they’re near. well, estonia because there’s cheap alcohol

  31. From my home country of the US, I think it is France. I love that the Euro response is where I now live, España.

  33. Austria for ski tourism. It’s the Alps.

    Denmark, and The Netherlands for family vacation at the shore. They are close, not too expensive, safe, and at least the people who work in tourism speak German.

    Mallorca for party tourists.

  34. Most people in Spain go to other parts of Spain in their free time, but when they don’t, they usually too far North (with the exception of London). Rome, Lisbon, Paris are common places, and I know a lot of people who went to New York for some reason.

    Sincerely, I don’t know what’s the attractive of New York outside seeing a lot of skyscrapers, and architectonically I appreciate some building from there, like the Chrysler Building (I love art deco btw), but I know most people wouldn’t notice that. Outside that, it’s the biggest advertisement billboard of the world.

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